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A review by unabridged_reader
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
4.0
Rating: 3.5
I was both intimidated and intrigued by the premise of The Bell Jar. The novel is about a woman’s unconventional coming-of-age—her floundering career, battle with depression, her sexuality—yet it seems inappropriate to label this novel a bildungsroman, at least in the traditional sense. Esther Greenwood’s experience describes one’s desire for the will to survive, a universal desire that I think everyone, regardless of age, has. Her experiences may have been affected by her journey into adulthood but her story is not defined by her youth.
And it’s truly heartbreaking to learn that Plath committed suicide shortly after The Bell Jar’s publication. It makes me wonder if she wrote the novel’s ending with a sincere hope that the bell jar would never again descend on her/Esther or if she was simply trying to please her audience with this ending.
I was both intimidated and intrigued by the premise of The Bell Jar. The novel is about a woman’s unconventional coming-of-age—her floundering career, battle with depression, her sexuality—yet it seems inappropriate to label this novel a bildungsroman, at least in the traditional sense. Esther Greenwood’s experience describes one’s desire for the will to survive, a universal desire that I think everyone, regardless of age, has. Her experiences may have been affected by her journey into adulthood but her story is not defined by her youth.
And it’s truly heartbreaking to learn that Plath committed suicide shortly after The Bell Jar’s publication. It makes me wonder if she wrote the novel’s ending with a sincere hope that the bell jar would never again descend on her/Esther or if she was simply trying to please her audience with this ending.